


A bone to pick.

by RussianSunflower3



Series: Inktober 2017 [26]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Archaeology, Gen, Give Asahi a break, Inktober 2017, Stonehenge - Freeform, Suga's a little shit and Daichi is an enabler, Travel, Woodhenge, skull
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-26
Updated: 2017-10-26
Packaged: 2019-01-23 10:04:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,303
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12504904
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RussianSunflower3/pseuds/RussianSunflower3
Summary: As archaeologists who travel the world, all Suga expected to find at Woodhenge was a few shards of pottery, maybe some fossilized wood.What he really finds is that ancient Englishmen partied as hard as their modern descendants.Then he digs up something a little more serious.





	A bone to pick.

“Careful, careful…”

“I _know_ , Daichi, get off my case.” Suga gives Daichi a sharp yet playful look as the head archaeologist leans over his shoulder, panicking as Suga digs around their latest marked pit.

Having travelled the world, this site due 2 miles north-east of Stonehenge in England was their most promising find yet. They’d found many fossilized bits of wood in post holes, suggesting this was a second 'henge to go along with whatever ceremonies were carried out at Stonehenge. The fact that they were connected by a river trail and marked path was all the more convincing.

“I found something. Oh my god, I found _bones_! No, wait… Animal bones. False alarm.” Daichi goes from hovering over Suga’s shoulder to walking over to Asahi’s side, crouching down to inspect the bones.

“These are… Chicken bones, I think. Good going, Asahi. This could potentially be a feasting spot. See the marks on the bone here? It’s been _eaten_.”

“You think festivals were held here?”

“Most likely. What kind of festivals, I’m not sure… Watch out for vengeful ghosts, Asahi~.” Daichi claps a mischievous hand on Asahi’s shoulder and strides back to Suga, leaving the youngest of their trio staring at the bone with a pallid expression. Suga snickers as Daichi returns to his dig site.

“You’re mean~.”

“Just as mean as you would have been.”

“You have a fair point.” They pause in their fun and teasing to grin at each other, before going back into serious business mode, scraping at the mud with their trowels and using their archaeological tools to gather any evidence of life. Mostly, they find pottery shards, or bones from devoured animals.

“Wow, they really knew how to party.”

“Suga! It was most likely an important ritual! You can’t say it was a _party_!”

“I can, I did, and I will.” He smirks slyly, and Daichi frowns at him with slight disappointment. Sighing, Suga stands up and brushes off his trousers.

“I’m going to the centre of the circle. These finds are too interesting, so there’s bound to _something_ good at the middle.” Daichi watches Suga go with a deep sigh.

“Suga doing what he wants again?” He almost jumps as Asahi’s appearance, his feet thudding into the pit.

“What do you think?”

“Well… He has good instinct? He always gets the most amazing finds when we leave him to it, so… I think it’s best to let Suga do his own thing.” 

“... Generally, I _shouldn’t_ let him run off doing what he wants. But since you put it that way… Alright. I’ll leave him be for now.” Asahi smiles at Daichi’s decision, grabbing a small paintbrush off the side to continue dusting around a pottery shard that sticks out from the earth - the one that Suga got bored with.

They don’t speak anything but business for the next three hours, too focused on their archaeological finds. Whilst Asahi recovers the pottery shards, Daichi tries piecing them together at his desk to make a full pot. Energetically, Suga keeps digging in his spot, switching from shovel to trowel once he reaches the designated depth.

“It’s too hot… Shall we stop for break?” Daichi tugs at his shirt collar, sweat beading down his skin. He has a healthy flush from spending time under the glaring midday sun, and Suga is glad they all thought to put sunscreen on.

“Yeah. I could do with a drink.”

“Think the little shop in the village will be open?” 

“Unless they’ve closed for lunch, which… Wouldn’t be a smart business decision…” Rolling his eyes at Asahi’s pessimism once again, Suga is about to hoist himself out of his trench, when he spots a slight discolouration in the rock. It’s been disturbed before. 

This isn’t just something layered in the ground. This is something that was _buried_. A long time ago, but still buried.

“Hold on, I think I found something.”

“Why do you always do this just before we go for a break!?” Asahi’s wail is completely ignored as Daichi jogs over to Suga in the centre of the formation, carefully extracting his find. It might be dirty, but he can still make out that it’s an off-set grey/white colour, and curved. It’s when he finds a fuse line that he realises what it is.

“It’s- It’s a skull…” Breathing out in awe, Daichi drops into the pit next to him and helps to carefully pull it out whilst Asahi announces he’s off to fetch food and drinks. He’s fine around the pottery, and finds like ancient toys, arrowheads, and the casual lifestyle items, but skulls? Not his thing.

“It’s small.”

“Daichi, do you think this is a child’s skull?”

“I would assume so. Looking at the fissures, they’re definitely young. I wouldn’t say older than 14, at least.” The corners of Suga’s lips twitch downwards.

“Well, at least we know this was most likely a ritual, if it’s right in the centre and buried intentionally.”

“A sacrifice… I wonder if-... No, that’s silly.”

“Daichi?” Fingers pressed against his chin, Daichi has a serious expression of thought, and Suga tilts his head questioningly.

“If this and Stonehenge are really linked… Could it have been a sacred pilgrimage? _Both_ align to the sun on Summer Solstice, Stonehenge at sunrise and this Woodhenge at sunset…”

“... You think it started at Stonehenge, there was a procession along the river, and then it ended here?”

“With a huge feast. Or, like you keep saying, the ‘party’ of the year.” Suga grins and snickers, glad that his intuition has proved right once again. It always has, in all of their travels. He carefully extracts the skull, holding it up to observe it in all its tiny historic power.

“We could probably write a book on this.” Daichi shrugs.

“Probably. Or we could make up spooky stories to tell Asahi over the campfire~.”

“I like the way you think!” Daichi gives a rumbling laugh at Suga’s exclamation, then turns as Asahi calls out to them from across the field, holding a bag chock full of crisps, sandwiches, and drinks. Suga wipes his arm across his brow.

“How much are you betting that he forgets I’m allergic to tomatoes, _again_?”

“I’m not betting against that.” Laughing, Suga pulls himself from the hole, taking the skull Daichi passes over carefully and taking it to their discoveries table, sorting it inbetween human artifacts and animal remains. 

Asahi’s obviously washed his hands in the public toilets in the village, before going to buy their lunch, though Suga and Daichi don’t have such luxury nearby if they want to eat soon. A water bottle poured over their hands as the scrub off the dirt, then a layer of hand-gel will have to do. Whilst they do that, Asahi sets up a picnic blanket, and puts up a wind breaker to give them a little shade as the shadows slant across the ground.

“I got… Chicken tikka masala sandwich for Daichi, egg salad for Suga, and cheese and tomato for myself.” He pauses in rummaging through the bags when the other two stare at him in shocked silence.

“... What?”

“You- You didn’t get tomato for Suga.” Asahi blinks. He flusters, spluttering and blushing as he remembers all his past mistakes, and then he clears his throat, looking away from them.

“Shut up and eat your egg.” Suge snickers and delves into the sandwich when Asahi passes it over. Halfways through their meal, the urge to be mischievous rises and he meets Daichi’s gaze. Daichi catches on quickly, and nods in permission as Suga grins.

“Hey, Asahi. Look behind you.”

It’s not the _worst_ way they’ve ever shown him a skull they dug up, but they still laugh when he shrieks and on instinct, bolts away from the ‘cursed artifact’ and ‘insensitive, fearless friends!’.

**Author's Note:**

> I got to volunteer at an archaeological dig site not too far from Woodhenge! All I found was one shard of pottery, but it was so worth it!
> 
> Please Kudos/Comment!  
> Help me feel alive for once.


End file.
